Do All-Inclusive Holidays Have a Negative Impact on Locals?

It has been said by some critics that all-inclusive holidays can have a negative impact on the local population and the local economy. These are serious accusations and will concern many potential holidaymakers, who will not want their holiday to become a source of unhappiness for the people who they are visiting.

Fortunately, there are many positive implications that arise from all-inclusive holidays – here we can give you some examples of how they have benefitted particular popular locations, namely Turkey, Crete, Egypt and Tunisia.

There are quite a few positive effects from all-inclusive holidaysthat have been noted by Turkish economists who have studied the subject. They write about increases in the occupancy rate of hotels and lodging houses, the benefits that accrue from the foreign currency entering the local economy and that all-inclusive holiday establishments can work and extend the tourist season. These are benefits acknowledged by scholars from a country that has produced some of the strongest complaints against all-inclusive holidays.

Crete also gains from the advantages that the Turkish economists noted as occurring in their country, considering the number of Cretans who work in establishments that offer all-inclusive holidays and the influx of foreign currency. As tourism contributes greatly to the Cretan economy, all-inclusive holidays are playing their part.

The positive implications of all-inclusive holidays may not be entirely obvious or tangible. It could be argued that the presence of resorts on the Red Sea coast of Egypt does little to encourage integration between holidaymakers and locals, as the holidaymakers stay in their resorts and interact very little with the local inhabitants. The positive implication by comparison, is that these all-inclusive resorts have changed the character of Egypt as a holiday destination, offering an alternative to the familiar image of ancient monuments and the Nile. The Red Sea resorts, catering as they do to all-inclusive customers, are new features, bringing in extra money and creating new sources of employment for ordinary Egyptians, thanks to their promotion of a beach-style holiday in the most historic of settings.

Again, the positive implications of all-inclusive holidays exist in the case of Tunisia. Tunisia has, up until recently, not been as a destination for large number of Britons. The obvious attractions of the country have perhaps been outweighed by tourists concerns about coping in a very different culture. Having the option to go all-inclusive and thus removing the worries of travelling in a fairly non-westernised country has greatly increased the numbers of people travelling to the country, thus generating all the positive economic side effects that we noted to be the case for Turkey and Crete.

Overall, it is clear that, whilst there may be a few drawbacks to be contended with, all-inclusive holidays generally have a positive effect on the local economy. This was proved in the case of Turkey, Crete and Egypt. In addition, all-inclusive holidays give countries the chance to add depth to the image of themselves that they show to the world, as we have seen in both Egypt and Tunisia.

Since a boy i have been fascinated by travel, people and places which is the reason i have been in the travel industry for over 20 years in numerous roles sales, marketing, operations & e-commerce. These days i run a boutique digital marketing agency in Tunbridge Wells called All Amplified Media specialising in Digital Marketing for online travel agencies.